In C1 chemistry, methyl formate has been evolved into a new starting material and structural unit of C1 chemicals for the reasons that it can be produced in a large-scale economically and effectively, and has many downstream products, etc., subsequent to methane chemistry, synthesis gas chemistry, and methanol chemistry. From methyl formate, various C1 chemical products, such as formic acid, acetic acid, ethylene glycol, methyl propionate, methyl acrylate, methyl glycolate, N-formylmorpholine, N-methylformamide, N,N-dimethylformamide, etc., may be produced.
At present, the techniques for synthesizing methyl formate are sensitive to impurities, and have stringent requirements for the purity of raw materials, complicated process routes, high energy consumption, and high investment. In view of the above reasons, the production capacity of a single set is typically not more than 100 thousand tons per year, and thus it is difficult to obtain a scale effect. If methyl formate can be produced with mild conditions and a simple process from inexpensive and easily available bulk chemicals such as formaldehyde, methanol, etc., important economic value will be created.